Audra McDonald, Will Swenson sing, chat as if at home at Lesher

Broadway couple Audra McDonald and Will Swenson chat and sing during an intimate performance at the Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.

Broadway couple Audra McDonald and Will Swenson chat and sing...

Broadway stars Audra McDonald and Will Swenson could easily coast through a cabaret show by sticking to their greatest hits: “Ragtime,” “Carousel” and “Porgy and Bess” are among her countless successes; “Les Misérables,” “Hair” and “Rock of Ages” for him.

Yes, they performed some of their most famous anthems on Friday, Jan. 27, in a concert at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, presented by Feinstein’s at the Nikko. Accompanied by musical director James Sampliner on piano, they also treated the audience to rarely heard gems and relaxed conversation, in an intimate performance that felt like a 90-minute visit to their living room.

In between Swenson’s swashbuckling “Pirate King,” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance,” and a McDonald-led sing-along of “I Could Have Danced All Night,” they bantered about showbiz and family and falling in love, and charmed the audience with their effervescent rapport.

“When did you know that you were the best singer in history?” Tony Award-nominee (for “Hair”) Swenson, 43, asked his wife, a Fresno native who is considered the finest Broadway artist of her generation.

Photo: Mason Trinca, Special To The Chronicle

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Will Swenson and Audra McDonald trade quips and sing at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.

Will Swenson and Audra McDonald trade quips and sing at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.

Will Swenson performs at the Hofmann Theatre in Walnut Creek, Calif., Friday, January 27, 2017.

Will Swenson performs at the Hofmann Theatre in Walnut Creek, Calif., Friday, January 27, 2017.

Photo: Mason Trinca, Special To The Chronicle

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Audra McDonald is welcomed on stage at the Hofmann Theatre in Walnut Creek, Calif., Friday, January 27, 2017.

Audra McDonald is welcomed on stage at the Hofmann Theatre in Walnut Creek, Calif., Friday, January 27, 2017.

Photo: Mason Trinca, Special To The Chronicle

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Broadway couple Audra McDonald and Will Swenson kiss after a duet performance at the Hofmann Theatre in Walnut Creek, Calif., Friday, January 27, 2017.

Broadway couple Audra McDonald and Will Swenson kiss after a duet performance at the Hofmann Theatre in Walnut Creek, Calif., Friday, January 27, 2017.

Photo: Mason Trinca, Special To The Chronicle

Audra McDonald, Will Swenson sing, chat as if at home at Lesher

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“Honey, hush,” replied McDonald, 46. But there’s no hiding McDonald’s magnificent talents, which have been recognized with six Tony Awards — more than any actor in history.

Swenson played the giddy schoolboy as he segued into “I Met a Girl,” from “Bells Are Ringing,” and McDonald countered with “When Did I Fall in Love” from “Fiorello.” “So,” she asked her husband with a sly smile, “when did you fall in love?”

“I saw you in ‘Ragtime,’” he said, “and I thought, ‘I should marry her.’” The audience sighed and fell further under their spell.

Unlike jazz technicians or slick stylists, Swenson and McDonald are actors who imbue each song with the character behind it. On Friday night, they layered in their own emotions as well. After his impassioned rendition of “Stars,” from his 2014 turn as Inspector Jabert in “Les Miz,” McDonald revealed that when he sang it on opening night, she and her in-laws “were holding each other and weeping uncontrollably.”

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The depth of feeling in the couple’s performance may be related to the birth of their baby, Sally James. “I haven’t gotten more than two hours of sleep in three months,” said McDonald, by way of excusing a rustiness that nobody but her could detect.

Parental fatigue weakens the defenses, but at different points in the evening McDonald seemed overcome by a greater vulnerability. Swenson’s “best singer in history” quip came after her gut-wrenching rendition of “Go Back Home.” The mournful song comes from Kander and Ebb’s 2010 musical “The Scottsboro Boys,” about nine black teenagers who were falsely accused of rape in 1930s Alabama.

McDonald fought back tears as she talked about news reports revealing that Emmett Till’s accuser admitted to fabricating her story. It was not the only time that McDonald, through both words and music, desperately appealed to humanity’s better angels.

They provided ample comic relief, too, like McDonald’s legendary, lightning-fast rendition of “Can’t Stop Talking About Him” — Betty Hutton is a favorite of hers — and their signature send-up of “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” featuring Swenson’s dead-on Neil Diamond and McDonald’s operatic Babs. The few false notes came in Cole Porter’s “So in Love,” set in a key that seemed ill-suited to Swenson’s range.

McDonald closed with a heartfelt encore of “Make Someone Happy.” And they had.